Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Insurgency Makes It Personal, House Bombings In Iraq

As Iraq’s insurgency has rebuilt itself it has become bolder in
its attacks. One of its new tactics is to bomb houses. Sometimes these are
improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed outside someone’s residence, but
more often than not they are bombs placed inside houses that destroy them.
This is a much more personal and intimidating type of operation, because it
lets the targets know that the militants know where they live, and that they
can lose their property and families, not just their own lives.

In January 2014, 46 houses were bombed across the country. The
vast majority of these belonged to public officials or members of the security
forces. January 2, a district mayor in Tikrit had an IED placed in front of his
home, and two soldier’s houses were blown up in Kirkuk. January 4, a
policeman’s house was bombed in Shirqat, Salahaddin, and an IED was placed
outside a soldier’s house in Kirkuk. The same thing happened in Ninewa the next
day to a policeman wounding him. January 6 insurgents destroyed seven
policeman’s homes in Zab, Tamim. January 7 a policeman’s house was wiped out in
Shirqat, Salahaddin. January 9 the residence of the deputy governor of Anbar
was bombed and collapsed in Albu Obaid. January 10 two army officer’s had their
houses bombed outside of Kirkuk. January 12 and 13 three houses being built for
policemen were blown up in Shirqat and Mosul. That last day the new police
chief of Fallujah had his house destroyed by IEDs. January 18 explosions in
Tikrit damaged three houses being built for police officers. January 24
southwest of Kirkuk a leader in the Sons of Iraq had his house bombed, then
attacked leading to his death, and an official in Salahaddin’s provincial
council had his house bombed in Tikrit wounding 3. Finally, January 30 the head
of the Anbar provincial council had his residence bombed, while his two
brothers were kidnapped. These attacks had an obvious purpose. Militants wanted
to scare and threaten these people. That’s shown by the fact that very few of
those targeted were at home when these explosions occurred. If insurgents
wanted to kill them they would have blown up their houses at night when people
were asleep inside them. Instead almost all of the homes were empty or under
construction. The insurgents wanted to let these police, soldiers, politicians,
and others know that they knew where they lived and that they could be targeted
again at any time. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and others
have reconstituted themselves and one of their main goals is taking and holding
territory. By going after local officials and security force members they can
achieve that goal by intimidating them to look the other way or quit their jobs
so that militants can have freedom of movement and assert their control.

As militant groups are making a comeback they are expanding and
diversifying their attacks. The wave of house bombings that started in 2013 and
have continued into 2014 are just the latest sign of their growing strength and
boldness. They also represent an entirely new form of attack. It’s not setting
up an IED on a road or doing a drive by or even walking up to someone and
killing them with a pistol with a silencer. It shows that organizations are
scouting and doing intelligence work and tracking individuals back to their
homes and then attacking them. It is meant to show that these people are not
safe anywhere and everything can be taken from them at any time. If creating
terror is the second phase of an insurgency according to Mao than these house
attacks show that Iraq’s militants are well on their way.

SOURCES

AIN, "Urgent….3 houses detonated in northern Babel,"
1/17/14

Buratha News, "After the bombing of three houses..The people
of Abu Saida fear the return of "terrorism" again," 1/13/14

- "The bombing of the house of the Anbar provincial council
head and the kidnapping of his two brothers," 1/30/14

Al Forat, "3 IPs' residences detonated eastern Tikrit,"
1/18/14

- "IED targets Mayor's residence northern Tikrit,"
1/2/14

- "IP's residence detonated northern Salah il-Din,"
1/4/14

- "Police officer's house detonated in northern
Salah-il-Din," 1/7/14

- "Terrorists detonate 7 houses in western Kirkuk,"
1/6/14

Al Mada, "An injury in the bombing of a police house west of
Mosul," 1/5/14

- "Damaged two houses belonging to the two officers detonated
two explosive devices south of Kirkuk," 1/10/14

- "Killing one soldier and his family blown up with six
houses north east of Baquba," 1/25/14

- "Mother killed in an orchard, a local official earlier
bombing of her home after the abduction of her son, east of Tikrit,"
1/22/14

Al Masalah, "Bombing of the home of deputy governor of
Anbar," 1/9/14

- "Killing two gunmen and another wounded by a roadside bomb
explosionin Amriya," 1/16/14

National Iraqi News Agency, "Bombing of the home of new
police chief of Fallujah," 1/13/14

- "Bombs Exploded Outside the Home of a Member of the Council
of al- Rashad District South of Kirkuk," 1/24/14

2 comments:

This is not a new tactic. ISIS in particular has been bombing houses of those suspected of working for the security forces etc. for months now. I think Jamaat Ansar al-Islam has engaged in this to a more limited extent too.

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Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com